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Animatsyesterday at 5:19 PM8 repliesview on HN

That's fascinating.

The article points out that nobody made a movie about this guy. That's mostly because a movie about someone who's an expert at building organizations is boring. Nobody ever made a biopic about Charles Wilson, head of defense production at General Motors during WWII, and later US Secretary of Defense. Hyman Rickover, who headed the 1950s effort to build nuclear submarines and warships, only has a low budget 2021 documentary. Malcom McLean, who converted the world to containerized shipping and made low-cost imports possible, never got a movie.

Those three people each changed the world more than any celebrity. They're well known in business history. MBAs study them. There are biographies. But no movie.


Replies

embedding-shapeyesterday at 11:43 PM

I'd love to see a movie about the "managers" Mervin Kelly and/or William Shockley. Less military oriented perhaps, but seems that period of Bell Labs just was something else for some reason, in terms of impact on the world.

raincoleyesterday at 9:59 PM

> That's mostly because a movie about someone who's an expert at building organizations is boring.

Still issue (seriously).

He might be an expert at building organizations in real life, but there is no rule that a movie about him has to focus on that part. Movies are not documentaries.

Examples: Oppenheimer, A Beautiful Mind, The Imitation Game, Jobs, Social Media, and literally every movie that sells tbh.

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xiii1408today at 12:22 AM

> The article points out that nobody made a movie about this guy.

What are you talking about? The article doesn't say no one made a movie about him.

There are at least three Chinese movies and a TV series about him.

jjk166yesterday at 7:33 PM

There are biopic films about people who founded or transformed businesses like Steve Jobs, Roy Kroc, Mark Zuckerberg, the founders of Blackberry, etc. Might not be everyone's cup of tea but I wouldn't describe that genre as boring. Probably the bigger issue is getting people to see a biopic about someone who isn't already a household name.

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gloryjulioyesterday at 9:53 PM

Isn't the recent Oppenheimer about building organizations, politics, and courts? There are bombs scenes but majority of the movie is the supposed boring stuff

photochemsynyesterday at 11:59 PM

They made a movie about Herman Kahn of the Rand Corporation, though. It was called “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”.

Well, that might have been a movie about Edward Teller, or possibly John von Neumann. Nobody is quite sure.

Apocryphonyesterday at 7:48 PM

But they did make a biopic about a Charles Wilson and a war:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Wilson%27s_War_(film)

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SideburnsOfDoomyesterday at 7:45 PM

> That's mostly because a movie about someone who's an expert at building organizations is boring.

Well, part of the Oppenheimer biopic is about J. Robert being thrust into that kind of role.

> Oppenheimer ... rapidly learned the art of large-scale administration after he took up permanent residence at Los Alamos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Robert_Oppenheimer#Los_Alam...